Freezing does the method work if my WD hard drive still spins, but i'm having trouble opening the device. it cant seem to open. read somewhere that freezing only works for HD what stop spinning. any links?

same issue - Elite drive is trying to boot but it doesn't get past the first LED light. I had no problems with it for the first week I had it - so I think it might be a lemon. I'd like to access the drive and back up the data before I return it. I've had it about a week. Any suggestions? I'll try another drive in the other USB port first.

same issue - Elite drive is trying to boot but it doesn't get past the first LED light. I had no problems with it for the first week I had it - so I think it might be a lemon. I'd like to access the drive and back up the data before I return it. I've had it about a week. Any suggestions? I'll try another drive in the other USB port first.

I have the same problem - so when I connected an older WD passport my computer recognized it immediately. I hooked up the newer "problem" passport elite into the second USB port and it continuted to "click" on one light until I received a message saying that my computer determined that the new drive to be unreadable and wanted to initialize it... Any other suggestions?I have the same problem - so when I connected an older WD passport my computer recognized it immediately. I hooked up the newer "problem" passport elite into the second USB port and it continuted to "click" on one light until I received a message saying that my computer determined that the new drive to be unreadable and wanted to initialize it... Any other suggestions?

1 Answer

Mine also spun. It made a clicking noise when it did. I guess it couldn't find the starting sector to locate my data. I read online this is because the heads that read data are stuck together. Freezing can shrink the metal these heads are made of and keeping them cold allows data to be read before they swell again. It won't always work, and you may not even have the same problem.

I had a computer guy tell me to take it all apart and then hook the hard drive up as an IDE slave, but I was nervous as I've never done it before. When the drive had been frozen for about a week or longer, I plugged in another external hard drive (new) that booted up right away into the USB of my computer, then plugged in the bad one next to it. People who know about computers told me that the new one gave the operating system the software it needed to boot up the old one.

There were some videos on YouTube where other people had similar problems and showed solutions. You could try there to see if someone else has your exact symptoms. Good luck!

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First thing, try to change the cable, try a different one, then if it does not work, try to connect the hard drive on another computer, and changing cables as well. This will help you to narrow down the problem to find out exactly what the matter is. If the Hard drive spins properly and it does not produce any click-click sound then it is fine. If all the above fail, then you have to slave the hard drive using its internal SATA connection. You have to open up the hard drive and remove the pin that connects the hard drive to the cable. This will enable you to see the SATA connection. Slave the Hard drive on a desktop computer and see if you can gain access to it. If you can, then consider replacing both the cable and the pin that connects the cable to the hard drive. If your hard drive just spins and you can not access it while its a slave to another computer, then the hard drive has a problem.... Try the methods above, i believe your hard drive did not go this bad...

It appears to be a problem with the WD hard disk that has data that the PC cannot read.I suggest you format the WD hard disk.The WD hard drive must be formatted on a PC in FAT32 for you to exchange data between the MAC and the PC.This will allow the MAC to see a PC hard disk and write files to the WD that the PC can open.

It "died" -- either the electronic circuit-board "under" the "spinning" part of the disk-drive has short-circuited, or the motor that spins the recording surfaces has quit.

You've tried it on another computer -- so you've done all that you can.

Any 500GB disk-drive is likely to still be under the W.D. warranty.
Open the enclosure, and get the model-number and serial-number from the label on the disk-drive.
Then, access the W.D. web-site, and click "check warranty status", and enter that information.
If the warranty is valid, W.D. will replace the device, at minimal cost to you.

If the warranty has expired, W.D. has a "Customer Loyalty" program -- purchase a new W.D. device from the W.D. web-site, and you qualify for a good discount on your purchase.

Or, remove the disk-drive from the enclosure, buy a replacement, compatible, disk-drive, and "transplant" it into the enclosure, to create a working external storage device.

try to connect your device into your pc and then, try to save files again, if this doesnt work, try to reformat your hard drive, im sorry to say that all your previous files will be deleted upon the format. after this, make partitions to hard drive. then save some of your files into it. if that doesn't work either, try a disk scan to check if your hard drive has bad sectors.

Here is a tedious solution that works. Use MioNet and move all the files you want to keep to another drive or another computer, then delete everything from the MyBookWorld. Remove MioNet from all computers. Next access the drive's built in Shared Storage Manager with a web browser. Check the pdf manual on the install disk to find out how. Create a new shared folder and then move everything you want on the drive into the new folder WITHOUT using MioNet. Map the shared folder as a network drive for easy access. Never, ever, EVER use MioNet again and all should be good. The drive works, the MioNet software does not.